Building the Air Defence - Air Force Service straight to modernity is a major policy of the Party, the State, the Central Military Commission (CMC), and the Ministry of National Defence (MND). To realise that policy, over the years, the Service’s Party Committee and Command have focused their leadership and direction on synchronously, drastically adopting measures in terms of personnel and materiel.

In recent years, rapid changes in the situation on a global and regional scale, particularly in the East Sea have imposed new demanding requirements on the Military build-up, national defence consolidation, and the Homeland protection.  Therefore, priority has been given to modernising several forces, including the Air Defence - Air Force Service. Under the Party’s guidelines, the Service’s Party Committee Standing Board and Command have concentrated on modernising the Service’s personnel and materiel, with the former playing a decisive role. To that end, the Service has placed emphasis on training, cultivating, and building its personnel both qualitatively and quantitatively, while adjusting its organisational structure in a compact, strong manner so as to promote the synergy of its components and forces. Significance has been attached to building the three-category air defence force and the people’s air defence posture, renewing political education, combat training, military standard order building, and discipline, and giving advice to the CMC and the MND on asking the Party and the State to acquire modern weapons and equipment to firmly protect the Homeland’s airspace in all situations.

To realise the Resolutions of the 13^th National Party Congress and the 11^th Military Party Congress, the Service’s 10^th Party Organisation for the 2020-2025 tenure has identified the guidelines and goals of “raising the Service Party Organisation’s leadership capacity and combativeness comprehensively, building a politically, ideologically, morally, and organisationally strong Party Organisation, enhancing the building of a ‘revolutionary, regular, elite, modern’ Service with a high level of synergy and combat readiness as the basis for undertaking and successfully fulfilling all assigned tasks, adjusting the organisational structure, and renewing training and education, with a focus on flight training, flight safety assurance, and effective exploitation of new, renovated weapons and equipment.” In order that the Service will move straight to modernity, it is necessary to well implement a number of tasks and measures as follows.

First, build a politically strong Service as the basis for improving its synergy and combat power. To that end, it is important to grasp the Party’s military-defence guidelines, the building of a revolutionary, regular, elite, and gradually modern Vietnam People’s Army (VPA), the modernisation of the Service, the role of personnel and materiel in warfare, and objects of combat of the VPA and the Service as the basis for the task performance. In the new situation, the Homeland protection and especially the management and defence of the country’s airspace impose complex, demanding requirements and necessitate building a “revolutionary, regular, elite, modern” Service in terms of politics, ideology, organisation, and personnel. Cadres and soldiers of the Service shall always express their political zeal, determination, and professional competence in the Air Defence - Air Force military art, while mastering the existing weapons and equipment, particularly the new ones, daring to fight, knowing how to fight, and readily fighting to win victory in any situation. All-level party committees and commands shall grasp, introduce, and concretise resolutions of all-level party congresses into their own resolutions and action plans in a close, qualitative, effective fashion. The whole Service shall execute the 13^th Politburo’s Conclusion 01-KL/TW, dated May 18^th, 2021 on continuing to realise the 12^th Politburo’s Directive 05-CT/TW in tandem with the 12^th Party Central Committee’s Resolution No.4 on the Party building and rectification in order to build a politically, ideologically, organisationally, and morally strong Service, increase its synergy and combat strength, and achieve a consensus within the force as the prerequisite for its modernisation.

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh visiting the Regiment 935 under the Division 370 (June 2021)

Second, continue making the Service’s organisational structure compact and strong and gradually acquire modern weapons and technical equipment. Grounded on the MND’s Project on “adjusting the VPA’s organisation in the period of 2016-2021 and beyond,” grasping the policy set by the Resolution of the Service’s 10^th Party Congress on “adjusting the organisational structure in a compact, strong manner and building high-quality human resources to meet the task requirements in the new situation,” the Service shall actively review and adjust its organisational structure to ensure a balance of strength between its components, forces, and units, with priority given to units tasked with combat readiness or stationed in the border, sea, island areas. Units of the Service shall be consolidated in a compact, strong, mobile, flexible fashion, while its offices’ strength shall be reduced. Due attention should be paid to gradually developing the information technology force to facilitate air defence - air force command and combat and clearly assigning responsibility and function to each office and unit.

Furthermore, the Service shall continue giving advice to the CMC and the MND on modernising its weapons and technical equipment to raise its combat power and ensure victory in modern warfare. At the same time, it shall actively, proactively renovate and upgrade its existing materiel, while quickly mastering new weapons and technical equipment. Importance should be attached to modernising the command, combat, and reconnaissance system uniformly, synchronously to maintain secrecy, stability, and continuity. Measures and new technologies should be employed to extend the lifespan of hi-tech weapons and technical equipment. Due regard should be paid to manufacturing materials and spare parts to ensure domestic supply and reduce dependence upon other countries.

Third, renew and improve training and combat readiness, and resolutely avoid falling into passivity or missing opportunities. The Service shall continue implementing the CMC’s Resolution No.765 on “raising the quality of training in the period of 2013-2020 and beyond” and achieve new breakthroughs in its training and education. It shall adhere to viewpoints, mottos, principles, and connections of training, actively renew and make the contents, programmes, and methods of training relevant to its combat situations, objects of combat, task requirements, operating areas, organisational structure, weapons and technical equipment in the new conditions of warfare. Commanding officers at all levels shall be trained to better their capabilities in command, coordination, settlement of situations, and independent combat.

Under the motto of “personnel first, guns later,” the training work must be aimed at rendering cadres and soldiers fully aware of the importance of modernising both materiel and personnel. To that end, the Service shall continue proactively building high-calibre human resources via different measures. Due attention should be paid to training and retraining the Service’s commanding and operational officers, pilots, and technical staff members at schools and academies. The Service shall select and deploy a number of excellent cadres, professional service men and women, and technicians to study abroad as the core force in acquiring new knowledge and technologies. Emphasis should be placed on training technical cadres and employees to master weapons, equipment, and technical procedures and effectively exploit materiel in modern warfare. As for the Air Force, it is necessary to provide flight and fight safety training for pilots (or flight crews), particularly those who are tasked with search, rescue, and combat readiness in the harsh weather condition, daytime, and nighttime as well as across the sea.

Besides, great value should be attached to regularly monitoring operations in airspace, especially our opponents’ flight operations in the Homeland’s airspace and seas, strictly maintaining the order of command, office, and combat readiness duty from Service to unit levels, opportunely dealing with situations, and resolutely avoiding falling into passivity or missing opportunities. Due regard should be paid to reviewing, supplementing and adjusting the Air Defence - Air Force Service’s combat plans and projects in accordance with the task of defending airspace and seas under the command of the Chief of the General Staff. Moreover, exercises should be organised to raise the manoeuvrability and combat readiness capacity of the Service’s forces and better their combat coordination with one another and with others within defensive zones.

Fourth, raise the quality of military standard order building and discipline management. Each force and unit should grasp their own characteristics, function, and task to design breakthroughs in making themselves “exemplarily, typically” comprehensively strong as the basis for improving their combat power. Consideration should be given to grasping and executing resolutions and directives on building comprehensively strong units, particularly the Service Party Committee’s Resolution 1190-NQ/ĐU, dated March 29^th, 2019 on “leadership over the raised quality of military standard order building and discipline towards 2023 and beyond” so as to make a huge positive change in building the military standard order, maintaining discipline, and ensuring flight and traffic safety in all operations. Emphasis should be placed on raising the level of military standard order in training, combat readiness, and management of troops, weapons, and technical equipment as well as educating troops to comply with the State’s law, the VPA’s discipline, and their units’ regulations. Besides, it is vital to grasp cadres and soldiers’ ideological developments, anticipate and opportunely deal with the risks possibly leading to incidents to maintain discipline. Cadres at all levels, particularly the key ones shall abide by the regulations on role model-setting responsibility in their observance of law and discipline. Due attention should be paid to building and multiplying “exemplarily, typically” comprehensively strong units across the Service and promoting the role of its competent offices in inspecting and supporting units’ performance of this task.

In addition to the modernisation of the Service, its all-level commanders, scientists and experts shall continue undertaking researches into an inter-connected, multi-layer, multi-tier air defence - air force posture to manage and firmly protect the Homeland’s airspace in any situation.

Maj. Gen. VU VAN KHA, Acting Commander of the Service